Dairy

MMN July 2024 – Carbon, Biodiversity and Regenerative Agriculture

Your Milk Buyers’ Plans and How to Stay Ahead of the Curve Milk companies, food manufacturers and food product retailers are increasingly aligning themselves with the regenerative agriculture movement. This…

Ventilation in Calf Housing through Summer

As the weather warms steps need to be taken to prevent disease outbreaks in calves. Calf sheds should be well-ventilated to ensure cool fresh air is flowing through. Air capacity…

Managing Johne’s Disease Within Your Herd

Johne’s disease is a chronic, contagious bacterial disease of the intestinal tract mainly seen in ruminant species, particularly dairy cattle. It is caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium avium subspecies Paratuberculosis…

Practical Assessment of Nutrition in the Milking Herd

Nutrition of the milking herd is usually seen as the responsibility of the farm’s nutritionist. However, there are many ways a herd manager or stockperson can assess whether nutrition is…

Nutritional Guidance for the Milking Herd

Nutrition in dairy cattle is a complex area, and many farmers rely on their nutritionist to ensure that the ration for the milking herd is correctly formulated to optimise herd…

MMN May 2024 – Funding for Business Energy Efficiency

Electricity use accounted for around 3% of the average dairy farmers costs in Scotland in the 2022/23 Scottish Farm Business Survey (and was 4.32% of fixed costs). As such, improving…

MMN May 2024 – Risk Factors for Twinning

As dairy cattle have been selected over the years for higher milk production, a higher rate of twinning has also been observed. In fact, the rate has tripled over the…

MMN May 2024 – Reducing White Line Disease in Dairy Cows

White line disease (WLD) is the second most common cause of claw disease in dairy cows, with an average of 5.5 cases per 100 cows per year (Barker et al.,…

MMN May 2024 – Colostrum Beyond Antibodies: What is New?

Project: Identifying critical control points for colostrum contamination and Mycoplasma bovis prevalence in first milking colostrum from Scottish dairy herds. When colostrum quality is discussed, it is tempting to think…

Providing a Comfortable Thermal Environment for Calves

Despite the various methods for housing calves (e.g. individual, paired, group, pens, hutches) the basic principles for housing should be the same. The environment should be as clean as possible,…

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